The latest Superannuation Benchmarking Report has put women’s total ownership of superannuation funds under management (FUM) at $1.2 trillion or 40 per cent, despite women making up 50 per cent of Australia’s population.
According to the Rainmaker report, women make up 50 per cent of Millennial super accounts, yet their account balances represent only 43 per cent of the age group’s FUM.
“Women own $4 in every $10 of Australia’s superannuation wealth,” said Alex Dunnin, executive director of research and compliance at Rainmaker Information.
He explained that some super funds have high concentrations of women members because of the industries and employers they serve, including health, education, retail, hospitality and the public sector.
“Many of these funds, particularly if they are also led by women, are among Australia’s best-performing and best value funds.”
Rainmaker’s analysis of APRA superannuation fund membership indicates that Rest is Australia’s most popular super fund for women, with over 1.1 million of its 1.8 million members being women.
Surprisingly, the Australian Defence Force Superannuation Scheme has the highest percentage of young women members, with 91 per cent.
This is followed by the Grosvenor Pirie Master Trust (managers of Cruelty Free Super, Lindfield Super and Simple Choice Super), CBA Essential and the Tidswell Master Trust (managers of Spaceship, Student Super, Super Estate, Mobi Super and the Australian Expatriate Superannuation Fund) with 74 per cent, 66 per cent and 65 per cent representation of women in their young membership bases, respectively.
Moreover, Aware Super was found to have the greatest level of FUM for women, with over $74 billion, while funds that have the highest level of female representation among their members included GuildSuper, HESTA and Mercy Super with 85 per cent, 79 per cent and 77 per cent, respectively.
Australia’s top six funds with the most women members are Rest, AustralianSuper, HESTA, Aware Super, Hostplus and Sunsuper.
